Speedway to reinvent itself?

[mikebv]

1 hour ago, Gambo said:

They didn't have their 'own agenda' they wanted to be World Champion, and the only way they could achieve that was by joining the GP Circuit.

So you think that the likes of Hans Nielsen, Leigh Adams, Jan O Pedersen, Erik Gundersen etc. etc. should have said don't want to be World Champion, I want to ride for my British club on a Saturday.

No, not at all...

But when the tipping point came and guests galore took over replacing missing No1 riders...

Thus destroying the credibility of the leagues...

I would have expected those running the sport to take over their own destiny rather than let it be delivered by others..

Edited August 24, 2021 by mikebv

[Humphrey Appleby]

47 minutes ago, Gambo said:

They didn't have their 'own agenda' they wanted to be World Champion, and the only way they could achieve that was by joining the GP Circuit.

So you think that the likes of Hans Nielsen, Leigh Adams, Jan O Pedersen, Erik Gundersen etc. etc. should have said don't want to be World Champion, I want to ride for my British club on a Saturday.

There was an element of wanting their cake and eating it though. The SGP has never paid a living wage, so riders effectively expected to their domestic league activities to support their world championship ambitions, and the British promoters allowed it to the detriment of their businesses. 

Very much a case of the tail wagging the dog, but that's really speedway in a nutshell. 

[Humphrey Appleby]

3 hours ago, steve roberts said:

...problem was/is the GP series creamed off the money that otherwise the BSPA got to see when they lost the one-off final and associate meetings and the money generated which proved invaluable to many promotions. The BSPA, as usual, were slow off the back foot and couldn't see the damage forthcoming and ignored the signs and only woke up when it came too late to do anything about it.

The BSPA were never going to be able to keep the World Final for their own exclusive benefit though, especially once the Swedish, Danish and then Polish leagues started to take off. They should have seen the writing on the wall with private attempts to promote a GP-type series, and got together with the other major countries to ensure they got in on the act and the potential benefits. That would have become easier in the early-90s with the rise of satellite and cable television that was looking around for cheap content. 

How Saturday GPs would square with Friday and Saturday night tracks would still be a matter of conjecture, but at least the revenue could have compensated those circuits. 

[frigbo]

4 hours ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

There was an element of wanting their cake and eating it though. The SGP has never paid a living wage, so riders effectively expected to their domestic league activities to support their world championship ambitions, and the British promoters allowed it to the detriment of their businesses. 

Very much a case of the tail wagging the dog, but that's really speedway in a nutshell. 

And still very much the case today.

The current farcical facade that pretends to be a bona fide league structure is all about appeasing the riders, rather than the paying customer or what benefits the business....

They'll never learn....

[IainB]

13 hours ago, mikebv said:

Saturday tracks didn't lose their race night due to the GP's..

They chose to lose those race nights themselves...

They didn't just lose their Saturday nights, they also lost their Friday nights as the FIM demanded attendance to sign in for practice... until they were dictated to by Poland who then insisted riders prioritise their league instead of actually qualifying!

[The Dog]

Have just read the last dozen or so posts on here and they all pretty much hit the nail on the head. I think the riders in the GP saw themselves as a big attraction to their club and so did the promotion, so in their eyes it was a probably a win win situation for both, although ultimately its become a big loss for the British leagues and the fans 

[Humphrey Appleby]

16 minutes ago, The Dog said:

Have just read the last dozen or so posts on here and they all pretty much hit the nail on the head. I think the riders in the GP saw themselves as a big attraction to their club and so did the promotion, so in their eyes it was a probably a win win situation for both, although ultimately its become a big loss for the British leagues and the fans 

History and ever decreasing spiral that’s speedway, suggests that GP riders were not the draw cards that was thought.

[mikebv]

32 minutes ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

History and ever decreasing spiral that’s speedway, suggests that GP riders were not the draw cards that was thought.

100%..

With the added issue of these lads needing their UK tracks to change fixture lists to accommodate them, (regardless of whether a good night to run or not), or decide to run without them and use "credibility destroying guests" instead..

(And ultimately lots of them)...

Either way, not a great plan to follow, yet it seemed to be the "only" one year in year out, for some unfathomable reason..

[OGT]

Maybe, just maybe, the IOW will  be the norm and everything else will be the circus.......

[Trees]

6 hours ago, OGT said:

Maybe, just maybe, the IOW will  be the norm and everything else will be the circus.......

Hope not! How big are their crowds?

[IainB]

1 hour ago, Trees said:

Hope not! How big are their crowds?

...enough to keep them running

[Sir Sidney]

2 hours ago, Trees said:

Hope not! How big are their crowds?

Trees, you seem to have a downer on the IOW offer and I don't know why that is.

I can understand that you don't like the racing on offer - but you must take into account the restrictions that the Warriors have had to operate within this year.

However, any one who goes to watch an event with an open mind could not fail to be impressed by the the whole show - from the minute you are welcomed by the parking team right up to the moment you leave ( and if you are travelling back to the mainland on the late ferry the customer care continues right up to the point you have to go back to your car ).

Any promoter would come away from a visit with at least a couple of ideas that would improve their own show, and therefore their customers night out.

Edited August 27, 2021 by Sir Sidney

[Trees]

2 hours ago, Sir Sidney said:

Trees, you seem to have a downer on the IOW offer and I don't know why that is.

I can understand that you don't like the racing on offer - but you must take into account the restrictions that the Warriors have had to operate within this year.

However, any one who goes to watch an event with an open mind could not fail to be impressed by the the whole show - from the minute you are welcomed by the parking team right up to the moment you leave ( and if you are travelling back to the mainland on the late ferry the customer care continues right up to the point you have to go back to your car ).

Any promoter would come away from a visit with at least a couple of ideas that would improve their own show, and therefore their customers night out.

I don't have a downer but there are lots of people saying how fantastic the IOW experience is but nobody says how large the crowds are so we can compare with "normal" speedway crowds, which is really important to see if the experience is any better basically!

[Trees]

3 hours ago, iainb said:

...enough to keep them running

That's all that matters I guess .....

[Sir Sidney]

1 hour ago, Trees said:

I don't have a downer but there are lots of people saying how fantastic the IOW experience is but nobody says how large the crowds are so we can compare with "normal" speedway crowds, which is really important to see if the experience is any better basically!

You are measuring the experience on the size of the crowd- but where are you wanting to compare it to?

I would say the IOW are getting crowds which would be comparable with or better than other NDL teams (and that is the level they have chosen to operate at), but perhaps more importantly they are at a level which makes it sustainable.

However, my main point is that any promoter at any level could learn from them and increase their own attendance. 

[Triple.H.]

11 hours ago, Trees said:

Hope not! How big are their crowds?

I'm sure I  read on Facebook that Tuesdays crowd was the biggest the promotion had.

 

[Hawk127]

8 hours ago, Trees said:

I don't have a downer but there are lots of people saying how fantastic the IOW experience is but nobody says how large the crowds are so we can compare with "normal" speedway crowds, which is really important to see if the experience is any better basically!

I think that the IOW appeals to the non speedway purist who wants to be entertained over a period of time with a variety of two wheeled action and other distractions. Speedway as many know it and has operated for years cannot survive as you have too few teams and fewer riders who have actually honed their craft and know how to set up a machine for the range of track conditions that the prevailing U.K. weather requires. The sport needs an open policy that allows tracks to remain open and offer entertainment on days/nights that suit. Ignore Europe and with the tracks that are left run fortnightly on Friday, Saturday and Sunday between April and October and most of all go out to provide an evenings entertainment not 15 races with gardening interspersed with tractor time trials and many examples of restarts with the mechanical clowns trying to rectify what they failed to do before the first attempt to run the race. If a race needs to be restarted, the riders need to get back to the start not fart about making adjustments giving an unfair advantage.

The sport is old hat and it fails to attract new followers and fails to try something new. It is dictated by riders who expect the unattainable in terms of track conditions and weather capped with promoters/club owners who think what they offer needs no change. These two need to ask themselves why the numbers on the terraces are falling. Sadly they have no interest in the punter or the potential entertainment value that a professionally run sport could offer. The current crop of riders (with few exceptions) and promoters apart from two or three really deserve each other and can be proud that their actions are central to the decline of speedway in this country and fully responsible for where it sits today. 

[Apollo]

Speedway- fundamentally needs to look at the obvious problem … overheads … when something isn’t working . You need to find the solution … 

so stadium rent - etc - staff - rates etc - which in difficult times .. are a huge problem . Plus individual owners want an income . 
 

so you start a club with lower overheads no stadium… Owned by fans , with a fan based subscription .. .. start again . Look at the past , grow the sport again 

I can’t believe nobody can’t see it , but hey . The fans keep talking about it , and haven’t quite realised the solution 

[Trees]

What if the stadiums aren't available to be used on a Friday/Saturday/Sunday?  

Do those clubs shut their doors?

What if clubs are doing ok on their league income on Mon/Thurs nights?

Maybe there are promoters out there who could promote an "evening of speed" or whatever you like to call it, surely they would be doing it if they really wanted/thought it worth the effort?

[Sir Sidney]

8 hours ago, Trees said:

Maybe there are promoters out there who could promote an "evening of speed" or whatever you like to call it, surely they would be doing it if they really wanted/thought it worth the effort?

Almost certain that, based on current experience,  BSPL would put barriers in the way of such events, limiting who could ride.